So, I'll be buying my new computer next week. First, I'm a student and my budget is about 800$ for the computer per say.

Purpose of the computer: gaming (Bioshock, orange box, Crysis, Far Cry 2, SC2, also older titles); DVD movies (1080i/p not necessary); school work.

I already have the monitor and speakers. (Samsung 206bw and Klipch ProMedia 2.1).

I'll be buying most parts on www.directcanada.com, because the prices are generally the lowest, and shipping is free.

Here is my actual selection:

Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5: 52$

Processor: E4400 : 135$

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L: 95$
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R: 137$
Reason for change: DS3L not available

RAM: 2 x Crucial Rendition 1GB DDR2-667: 2 x 28$ = 56$
OCZ Platinum Xtc Rev2.2 DDR2-800 2x1GB: 100$ - 40$ mail-in rebate
Reason for change: better overclocking potential

PSU: Corsair HX 520W: 109$
Antec NeoHE 500W: 97$
Reason for change: NeoHe 500W has 38A vs Corsair HX 40A on the +12 rail, 2A is not worth 12$.

Hard drive: Seagate PATA 320GB : 0$ (sent by mistake by Seagate)


Sound card: Chaintech 5.1: 10$
Chaintech AV-710 : 21$
Reason for change: Chaintech AV-512 sucks.

Keyboard and mouse: Microsoft comfort curve and optical mouse: 20$.

Video Card: ASUS X1950Pro : 172$

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So, I've decided to keep to CoolerMaster Centurion 5 instead of switching to Antec Sonatas 3. The CoolerMaster Centurion looks less cramped, has better ventilation, plus the Earthwatt PSU in the Sonata is not as good as the NeoHE.

Video card will be the ASUS X1950Pro, 8800GTS is definitely out of my price range, X1950XT sits too uncomfortably at 210$ + shipping. With the saved money (140$) I'll upgrade in 18 or 24 months to something better than 8800GTS.

If I get the mail-in rebate from OCZ, this Platinum RAM is a heck of a deal, and I want a decent overclock so I chose it instead of the cheap Crucial Rendition.

I wanted the DS3L because it's cheaper, but the bad thing about DirectCanada is that their inventory is not too reliable and at the moment they're out of stock. So it's DS3R, better quality and peace of mind for 40$. Ugh.

Do I need:

• Thermal paste for the CPU?
• Special jumper settings for the hard drive? (It's PATA)
• Any special cable? Ribbon cable is included with the motherboard btw.
• Here are the connectors on the NeoHE 500W, enough?

Looks good?

If you can swing it, I think you ought to try for DDR2-800 RAM.
That case has good cooling, especially if you're not planninga high OC.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Gigabyte onboard sound is better than what Chaintech offers. At the very least, that's $10 you don't need to spend now. Sound is an easy upgrade later if you decide you want it.

What I'd do is

Processor: E4400 : 135$
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L: 95$
RAM: 2 x Crucial Rendition 1GB DDR2-667: 2 x 28$ = 56$
Keyboard and mouse: Microsoft comfort curve and optical mouse: 20$.

But change to
Antec Sonata 3 with 500W PSU: $120
And get EVGA 8800 GTS 320mb Superclock: $309

Total:$735 x 7%tax= $786.45

I'm guessing you have a monitor and a disk drive though.

You should get a SATA HD or a sata to ide converter

You're not the first to tell me that sound card sucks, so I,ve ruled it out. The Chaintech AV-710 is still cheap (20$) and looks good from what I've seen. I've had bad experiences with onboard sound (I have some high-end speakers so if there's interference I can hear it clearly), and I've heard the difference a small SoundBlaster Value Live! makes, so I at least want a dedicated sound card.

There's some OCZ Platinum Rev 2.2 ddr2-800 RAM for 100$ (2x1GB), but there'S a 40$ mail-in rebate which kinda brings it to 60$. It's a good deal what do you think?

I've decided not to spend over 250$ on the video card, since I'll upgrade in 1 or 2 years. An X1950 is good for my needs. However I like your suggestion on the case. The Antec Sonata 3 looks like a sweet deal! Do you think it compares favorably to the Corsair HX 520W and CoolerMaster Centurion 5 which I know are very performant products? It represents a 40$ saving for me, is it worth it?

A Sata HD of the same size is 80$, how is it worth it over a free IDE drive? Is it that much faster? I don't think so.

Well the Corsair is much better interms of quality, but it doesn't seem that you need that PSU. If I was going to get any vid card I wouldn't get the x1950 pro though, it doesn't break 30 fps playing Bioshock @ 1280 x 1024 on high or 35 fps playing MOH Airborne on high at 1400x900.

So then you have to look at the x1950 xt, and when you look at a $80 or less price difference ($210 + shipping or $310 + free shipping) and it being only $50 over your vid card limit it seems hard not to consider tha 8800.

Also the x1950 xt doesn't blow the x1950 pro out of the water and the 8800 gts does to them both. Also with the release of the Crysis beta and the screen shots from that with people playing on a x1950 pro you would really want to have the 8800.

I'm just giving my opinion though and I think that since you're under your spending limit with the build that has a 8800 I'd just get it.

The reason he was telling you to get a SATA adapter is that your chipset on your motherboard is limited to one IDE connector so you would have to slave your disk drive and there has been some bugs in the beggining with doing this on the 965 chipsets but hopefully now this has been ironed out.

Well I'll try it out first.

List updated.